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I need help with a gps project

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packet_loss

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Here is the gps module I plan on getting (the last one on the page). Besides that all I need is something to capture and pass along the data it receives from the gps module. For that I'm thinking this will do the trick. I'm considering two different ways of passing the data along to the user. One is to interface the stamp with a cheap prepaid cell phone that can be called which would trigger it txting the current location back to the caller. The cell phone option can look several different ways besides the example I just gave. Another option is to add a wireless ethernet card which would latch on to unsecured networks at every opportunity and upload its data (everything it's captured since it's last upload). You guys think I can pull it off with the stuff I'm looking at? You know my goal, how would you go about accomplishing it? The requirements are that it be as small as possible, totally self contained and as energy efficient as it possibly can be since it may be inaccessible for long periods of time (like a week or so) every now and then.

I think I'm gonna get this too. Thanks for the advice guys!
 
The last module on that page is just an amplified antenna. You would be far better to buy a GPS receiver, which is no bigger, not much more expensive, and does all the decoding for you. The GPS strings will be sent by the GPS receiver and you would need to interpret them inside a PIC or whatever processor you need.

If you are going to send data by cell phone, it's a good idea to have a processor with two serial ports, as you need to send and receive data from the cell phone, as well as the from the GPS.

To keep the power low, you need to turn things off as much as possible. You could turn the GPS off most of the time. If it finds it is moving when it turns on, you could get it to stay on. Similarly, the phone only needs to be on occasionally.

You could just buy the complete thing. OnTrak | Home
 
The write up reads as if it is a complete unit with an amplified antenna that outputs already formatted data that just needs to be used somehow by a micro-controller. If what you are saying is correct then that's scary as hell! I would have ordered that damn thing only to find that it isn't capable of anything really. I'm confused again lol. Why do you say it's only an antenna?

As for the suggestion that I buy a complete unit from Ontrak, I already have something similar, the spark nano from lightening gps. The service for the damn thing is cost prohibitive as hell. Besides the cost there are other reasons why I'm not interested in the Ontrak or any other complete unit, mainly that I didn't build it :D I want something I built first and foremost, I also want something a bit more flexible than a complete premade unit would afford. I mean if I built it then I could have it play dixie everytime it finds it's self down south of the Mason Dixon or have it automatically dial 911 if it finds it's self in Compton.
 
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There may be some confusion as to which module we are talking about. The last item on GPS Modules says:-

GPS Module - Active Antenna
GPS Active Antenna to suit above module, this unit has excellent technical performance with a gain of up to 28dB

All the other items are GPS receivers, which output data in a NMEA 0183 format.

There are a lot of tracking devices, like the On-Trak one, that use prepay and don't have a service cost.
 
Any GPS module that outputs in the NMEA 0183 format is as easy to use as they get.

So, the ARM stamp should be plenty of processing muscle? It doesn't need to interpret anything just store then forward the data it gets. I guess I should be asking about the stamp's capabilities not the gps module's.
 
Yes, the ARM Stamp or a regular Arduino is perfectly capable of handling the simple data from a GPS module.
 
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